What the Hell Are Record Labels Thinking?

There always seems to be two sorts of people when it comes to popular music. There are those who hate it and wonder how it even became popular and wish older styles come back. Then there are those that will listen to and enjoy whatever they are played. Those people always argue that the same happens with every generation. That many people hate the new, but in time they’ll accept it and in 10 years people will hate the even newer stuff and reminisce about the music of this time. There’s some truth to this. When rock and roll showed up, it was “devil’s music” and people thought it ruined their society. It has happened with most genres, but it must have some end. With rock and roll, people didn’t like the style, but they also said the subjects and meanings of the songs were bad. So, people just get increasingly daring in what they can sing about. People were upset when slight sexual references were in music, imagine if they heard some of the recent songs, very directly about drugs, glitter, and sex with aliens. Still, people say that the music’s good and people just complain because they always do. When it gets to the point where a popular artist can have a song that is literally all about excrement, it’s a bit more that people just complaining about change. So, if music really is getting worse, how did it happen?

For the most part, the people that really enjoy all the latest trashy pop hits, just turn their radios to a station of the latest music and will listen to whatever is played. So, nobody directly decided they’d rather listen to repetitive, offensive pop songs all the time. Again, that goes back to: Where did this music come from? If no one really wanted it or asked for it, how come it is now the most popular? Maybe the industry realized that people no longer care what they listen to or if it means anything and just decided to make money in the laziest way they could find. Instead of taking time to be creative or focus on quality, young kids just somehow get record labels for songs that they rarely even write and that anyone could perform just as well with auto-tune at their disposal. Also, when the performer doesn’t write the song, and uses auto-tune, what exactly are they getting paid for? They don’t bring creativity in making the song, or talent in performing it. How did they get chosen over others that can actually write a good song or at least sing on their own? Even rappers that can’t sing normally can write their own raps to make up for it, but these pop stars don’t even have that. It seems it all comes down to the record labels just wanting to make some kid popular and get as much money as possible. Maybe people who can’t sing or write will take the job for less money, and the labels just want to take advantage of that.

There’s definitely still good music, with actual talent and comprehensible lyrics, but it isn’t what’s heard constantly and sung repetitively by teenagers and young adults alike. As with anything, there’s good and bad, but why would the good be pushed to the back burner? Normally, people only hear about the best of things and what isn’t noteworthy is hidden, but now the worst seems to be in the spotlight, with the remainder lost. As it happened, people still accepted the music, so the industry decided to push it’s boundaries and see just how far they can go without losing popularity. That test seems inconclusive. They’ve gone past trashy parties,  people getting drunk, excessive glitter, sexuality in every way, and literal crap. They just keep pushing away, with not a boundary in sight.